Are district races good for Escondido?

Public invited to six October forums on proposal to divide city into election districts

ESCONDIDO  Escondido residents will get what some are calling an unprecedented opportunity to shape the future of their city during a series of public hearings this month focused on dividing Escondido into geographic election districts.

An independent commission has scheduled six public hearings at locations across the city so residents can help decide the boundaries of those districts, which will be used for the 2014 election.

The goal is making sure the seven-member commission doesn’t accidentally divide close-knit communities and neighborhoods when they create a rough draft of the boundary lines in early November.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has already taken an active role in the process, says it’s particularly crucial that the city’s large Latino community not be divided in a way that dilutes its political power.

The difficulty Latinos have had winning elections in Escondido prompted the city’s switch from at-large elections to districts.

The commission was created in July to help Escondido settle a voting-rights lawsuit that claimed at-large voting was harming Latinos. Nearly 50 percent of city residents are Latino, but only three Latinos have ever been elected to the City Council.

Rather than fight the costly lawsuit, Escondido reluctantly agreed this spring to move to district elections. It will be the second city in the county to make the change; San Diego did it in 1988 and Chula Vista will do so in 2016.

Mayor Sam Abed said Friday that the commission and the ACLU have put too much focus on ethnicity. He urged residents to lobby for districts based on geographic ties, not ethnic ones.

“Focusing on ethnicity is counter to my goal of uniting the city,” he said. “Creating one large Latino district will limit Latinos to one voice on the council.”

“There’s a history of people not participating in politics because their voice wasn’t being heard,” she said. “The commission needs to make sure they don’t do anything to dilute the power of a group that’s been unrepresented.”

This month’s hearings, which begin Thursday, will provide Escondido residents a chance to help set a course for the city’s future, Shellenberger said.

“It’s an unprecedented opportunity,” she said. “It’s almost like a live civic engagement lesson.”

The ACLU held a forum last month to give residents tips on how to testify at the hearings and to explain that the commission can take into account something called “communities of interest” when drawing the boundaries.

Those can include groups united by race, ethnicity, language and income. But they can also be groups who frequent the same parks, stores or restaurants. And they could also be groups united by reliance on mass transit, renting instead of being a homeowner or living in a mobile home park.

Dana Nuesca, chairwoman of the independent commission, said Friday that the panel hadn’t yet decided what criteria they will use. That’s why it’s crucial for as many people as possible to participate in the hearings, she said.

“It’s important because this will determine how people vote in Escondido in the future.” Nuesca said. “We don’t know what links certain neighborhoods together — maybe they all work for some common cause. We don’t want to divide up groups like that.”

The commission will create four council districts. The mayor will continue to be elected at-large.

The first hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at Bear Valley Middle School. Subsequent hearings will be 9 a.m. Saturday at Hidden Valley Middle School; 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Church of the Resurrection; 9 a.m. Oct. 19 at Mission Middle School; 6 p.m. Oct. 24 at Felicita Elementary; and 3 p.m. Oct. 27 at City Hall.